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Quote :A Critique of Modern Textual Criticism
Sometimes these relationships [between author and editors and publishers] operate smoothly, sometimes the author will struggle against every sort of intervention, and between these two extremes falls every sort of variation […] "Final authority" for literary works rests neither with the author nor with his affiliated institution; it resides in the actual structure of the agreements which these two cooperating authorities reach in specific cases.
Authors don't just write in a bubble: they're part of a social and a literary world. When they write a work, they have to negotiate things with other people. They have to negotiate with their editors, with publishers, and sometimes even with their audiences.
So, according to McGann, when we ask who has final authority over a work of literature, we can't just talk about the author; the author's just one part of the picture. Final authority can only be found somewhere between authors and their editors, publishers, and other collaborators.